11.01.2006

Nicole Richie insists that while she is getting treatment for her weight issues, she is not in rehab. "I'm not in rehab, and I don't have an eating disorder," she told US mag. "I'm getting the help I need and taking care of my health." Insiders say the Simple Life star made the decision to push for answers about her weight after seeing the shock on her relatives' faces when she attended her grandmother's funeral in Alabama on October 21. "They told her she was too skinny and it really hit home," a friend said. "It was a turning point." Richie is rumored to be getting treatment at a Newport Beach facility. Her father recently spoke of his worry over Richie's weight while in Toronto for a performance. "She tried to solve it the first time by herself," the elder Richie said. "And then as it went on, she went, 'Dad, I don't know what the heck this stuff is.' I said, 'Let's go figure it out.' But it's all in the public eye. As I told her before, 'I know this is difficult to say, but get over it.'" Richie has maintained she does not have anorexia. "She wants to find out why she's not gaining weight 'cause she's eating forever," Lionel said. "She was eating, that's not the problem. And I told her I had the same problem back when I was growing up in the business. Mine was stress-related, and so I kind of got the feeling right now that she's very close to her dad in a lot of her stomach activity." Richie went on to say that he hopes his daughter will have a "triumphant return back to the world in about three or four weeks."

"...she's very close to her dad in a lot of her stomach activity..."Is he trying to say something along the lines of "we have a lot in common since she's my daughter?" Because that would be a VERY stupid thing to do seeing that she's ADOPTED, and he's NOT her biological father.